Sen. Yager announces energy grant for Rockwood

August 5, 2016

NASHVILLE — State Senator Ken Yager(R-Kingston) announced today that Morgan County will receive a $52,100 in Clean Tennessee Energy Grant. The grant application had the strong support of local State Representatives Kent Calfee and Ron Travis.

The grant program provides financial assistance to state and local government agencies, utility districts, and quasi-government entities in Tennessee to purchase, install and construct energy projects.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult for county budgets to keep up with utility costs,” said Senator Yager. “With taxpayers funding the cost, it is very important that we utilize energy efficient methods to control them. I congratulate our local officials who worked hard to secure these funds.”

According the Department of Conservation and Environment, the funds will be used to install a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system upgrade with solar panel installation at 18 sites. The county’s existing tanks, pumps and plants are not currently served by a reliable SCADA system. The installation of this system will significantly reduce vehicle trips to those locations and will provide on-demand data and renewable energy to power the system.

The County will reduce operating costs by an estimated 10,432 kWh, saving 7.2 metrics tons of CO2 equivalents annually. This will save the County approximately $11,000 annually.